1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a hard disk drive in which a plurality of regions at which data are stored are provided by using partitions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a hard disk drive (hereinafter, HDD) mounted on an image forming apparatus, for example, a copying machine, there are a single or a plurality of partitions used for changing an image, and a single or a plurality of partitions for storing other data.
With respect to respective data, read/write of data are carried out in partitions corresponding to the respective data. The reason for that a HDD is divided into many partitions is that limitations on using capacities are physically put so as to limit to a certain function or a certain intended use. Further this is from the viewpoint of security.
In accordance with a constitution in which many partitions are provided in this way, differences are brought about in the frequencies in use among the partitions in the course of continuing to use a copying machine. Scanned image data is converted into a digital image, and thereafter, is written into a partition corresponding thereto. The image data is read for printing from the partition into which the data has been written. From the characteristic of a copying machine, a frequency in use of a partition in which printing related data is handled is much higher than that of other partitions. For example, as compared with operations in which addresses are registered with an address book and the addresses are referred to, write operations and read operations of a partition in which printing related data is handled are frequent. Therefore, due to repeated use over the years, a deterioration of a partition with a high frequency in use progresses faster than that of other partitions. A deteriorated partition causes a failure, which affects an entire HDD, and all the data in the HDD may be lost in some cases.
Accordingly, there are needs for an image forming apparatus which can extend the life of an HDD and prevent data recorded in the HDD from being lost.